MAP18: Pandemonium (Console Doom)

MAP18: Pandemonium is the eighteenth level of console versions of Doom, based on the original E3M3: Pandemonium with modifications made to adapt to the consoles' limitations. It was converted by American McGee and originally designed by Sandy Petersen. The map first appeared on the Atari Jaguar, and was later ported to the 3DO, Game Boy Advance, Sony PlayStation, and Sega Saturn consoles.

Because Slough of Despair was not ported to consoles, Pandemonium is the second level set in Hell rather than the third.

Essentials
Main route

You start in one of the alcove tunnels in a dark room. Head out of your place and enter the second alcove tunnel to the west of you to get a shotgun. Walk up the stairs to an open area which is full of hellspawn. To the north you see a skull switch and stairs up. Not pushing the switch (as it is optional) head up the stairs and turn right, then left. There is a lava room below, so drop on the safe dry land into the north room (this lava room is actually optional and has four medikits, a supercharge and a BFG9000 if you find them there). Once you dropped on the safe land, not dropping on the next floor below the ledge, turn left and take the blue keycard.

Alternative route

There is another route for finding the blue key. At the start, take the shotgun in the alcove to the west of you and head to the east room with four red torches around. Run through the long corridor to the extreme north killing enemies on your way (you can also find secret#1, secret#2 and secret#3 if you want). You should end up in a room with two scrolling skull pillars. Take the lift up and open the wooden door. To get the blue key walk through the metal structure, head straight and turn left. Take the staircase to the left (the right staircase is optional and will lead you to a supercharge powerup) and turn to a ledge where there is the key. Take it.

Exit

When you have the blue key, drop down from the blue key ledge to the wooden floor and go through the metal structure to a wooden door but do not open it. Head up the staircase to an open area. Here, there is a blue door to the right. Before you enter prepare a powerful weapon against the imps inside. The second door inside conceals the exit portal.

Secrets

 * 1) From the start head east and go through the long gargoyle corridor to the north. At the end of the gargoyle corridor there is a dark alcove to the east. Go there to find a watery area (sector 88) with lost souls and two alcoves leading to the second secret.
 * 2) From secret #1, visit either east alcove and turn left into a corridor to find a lava room. A berserk pack can be seen from here but taking it from here is unsafe. Kill the cacodemon and lost souls (high difficulty only) in the lava room and cross the bridge to enter a dark room. Turn right and go to the north to find a stash room with a rocket launcher and other items. (sector 109) The berserk item mentioned earlier can be taken here safely.
 * 3) Return to the long gargoyle corridor and turn left to a nukage room. Quickly (the nukage damages badly) step on the nukage and head right to find a chaingun (it can be seen from a narrow window of an upper room). (sector 105)
 * 4) Head into the blue keycard room as described in the first two paragraphs of the walkthrough. The five sectors (including three steps of the staircase leading to the key) before the key ledge (sectors 1, 5, 60, 61 and 62) are counted as secret when you step on them. It is advised to get the blue key by climbing those steps so all the secrets are registered.
 * 5) See secret #4.
 * 6) See secret #4.
 * 7) See secret #4.
 * 8) See secret #4.
 * 9) Through the metal structure go up the stairs to the north open area with the blue door. The dark marble wall in the south east of the area lowers if you touch it. Behind, take two stimpacks and a box of ammo but beware of one or two demons. (sector 35)
 * 10) In the same area, the similar wall in the south west can also be open but with the other way. Go to the back of the "altar" in this area and step on it to make the mentioned wall sink down. You can now take two medikits, 4 shotgun shells and a computer area map. (sector 38)

Bugs
Two energy cells (things 8 and 9) have no flags set for any of the difficulty classes, so they do not actually appear in the level.

Comparison of versions
The numerous changes compared to the PC version in this map are:

Removed areas

 * The west of the map (which includes the corridor, nukage room and scrolling walls room) connecting the north- west room and the starting area was deleted entirely.
 * The two rooms observable through the small windows in the starting area (both rooms kept optional items but the east held the required blue key) were removed.
 * West and east mazes (center of the map) presented in the original version were used to lead the player into the above mentioned rooms, into the lava room still present in the console versions, and served as a puzzle for the player to find optional items and lost souls within the mazes. On the console versions based on the Jaguar port the east labyrinth was deleted leaving only a sealing wall in the place of the entrance, while the west maze was significantly simplified: it only serves as a transition between lava room and the central area and only has one dead-end with a lost soul and a medikit.
 * The two western alcoves in the starting area were removed. This is probably because the Jaguar only supported two-player multiplayer.

New design
Some rooms in the level were redesigned:
 * The central area no longer has a shotgun on a pillar, as well as the pillar itself. Instead, it has two walls on either side of the room which will lower when the player pushes the skull to reveal at least one shotgun guy and imps. Two medikits are also inside.
 * The two alcoves to the south of the same room, which were used to display scrolling snakes texture, are retextured into metal, made taller and slightly deeper and were added an imp into each one serving as an ambush alcoves.
 * The water pools by secret #1 has water pools are only 16 units lower than the adjacent platforms, allowing players to step out of them if they fall in. The pools no longer inflict damage.
 * The lava room with a bridge (connecting secrets #1 and #2) is a rectangle, instead of being a concave shape.
 * The large wooden steps which connected the penultimate room with the chamber containing the scrolling skulls/guts pillars were changed to a metal lift.

Other

 * The blue key has been moved from the bottom of the now-deleted silver staircase to a ledge in one of the northern rooms. It is now a keycard rather than a skull key.
 * The invulnerability sphere accessed by the downward staircase in the same penultimate room was replaced with a soulsphere. To balance the difficulty, the water in this area is not harmful.

PlayStation
Some additional changes are present in the PlayStation port:
 * The skull pillars in the north-eastern room do not scroll.
 * The room before the blue door is larger, along with its southern alcoves.
 * Four demons and one spectre are replaced with nightmare spectres which appear on all skill levels. They appear in the following locations:
 * One in the room east of the starting area.
 * One on the path to secret #2.
 * One in the north-eastern room with the skull pillars.
 * One guarding the soulsphere at the bottom of the curved staircase in the north-west of the level.
 * One in secret #9.
 * Three Hell knights are added on Ultra Violence skill level, making this map one of the few to include both Hell knights and barons of Hell. By manipulating the two species into meeting, it is possible to make them infight with each other. They appear in the following locations:
 * One in the central open area (up the stairs from the start).
 * Two in the north outdoor area near the blue door leading to the exit.

Music
The map uses the following music tracks:

Player spawns
This level contains five spawn points:
 * 1) facing north. (thing 136)
 * 2) facing north. (thing 137)
 * 3) facing north-west. (thing 138)
 * 4) facing west. (thing 139)
 * 5) facing east. (thing 140)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: